Tag:
Tirana

They built parks, painted houses, demolished unauthorised structures and turned the city into a field of architectural and chromatic innovation. Colourful skyscrapers are constantly being built, as if there is an unofficial, open architectural competition in play. Τhe modern buildings are surrounded by popular neighbourhoods, with their local bazaars and old apartment buildings. Even those, however, have been spruced up in good taste.

The first person we met entering Albania was Baschkim Bountla, who works at a taxi rental agency at the airport in Tirana. He usually introduces himself as Giannis (John) when he is speaking to Greeks, because that's the name he was given when he used to work in Greece as an economic immigrant.

A small percentage of the Muslims of Albania belong to the Bektashi community, which used to be based in Constantinople (Istanbul), until Kemal Ataturk drove them away because they denied removing their cassocks. After their persecution in 1929 they were transferred to Tirana, where they built their tekke, a place for spiritual retreat and character reformation, something like a monastery.